Figure toolbar customizations

Last week, I described how to access existing Matlab figure toolbar icons and how to add non-button toolbar components. Today, I describe how the toolbar itself can be customized using undocumented functionality and properties.

All the important undocumented customizations can only be accessed via the toolbar’s Java handle, which is retrieved so:

One interesting functionality is enabling a floating toolbar, via jToolbar.setFloatable(1). The toolbar can then be dragged from its docked position at the top of the figure menu, becoming enclosed in an independent floating window (a non-modal javax.swing.JDialog child of the parent figure, to be exact). Since this toolbar window has a very small initial size and no name, a simple immediate fix is required:

Re-docking a floating toolbar can be done by simply closing the floating window – the toolbar then reappears in its default (top) position within the parent figure window.

There are other interesting functions/properties available via the Java interface – readers are encouraged to explore via the methods, methodsview, inspect functions, or my uiinspect utility.

For example, addGap() can be used to add a transparent gap between the rightmost toolbar component and the window border: this gap is kept even if the window is shrunk to a smaller width – the rightmost components disappear, maintaining the requested gap.

setBackground() sets the background color that is seen beneath transparent pixels of button images and gaps. Non-transparent (opaque or colored) pixels are not modified. If the button icons are improperly created, the result looks bad:

jToolbar.setBackground(java.awt.Color.cyan); %or: Color(0,1,1)

Default figure toolbar with cyan background

This problem can be fixed by looping over the toolbar icons and modifying the pixel values from their default gray background to transparent. An example for this practice was given at the beginning of last week’s article.

setMorePopupEnabled() is used to specify the behavior when the window resizes to such a small width that one or more toolbar buttons need to disappear – by default (=1 or true) the chevron (>>) mark appears on the toolbar’s right, enabling display of the missing buttons, but this behavior can be overridden (0 or false) to simply crop the extra buttons.

setRollover() controls the behavior when the mouse passes (“rolls”) over toolbar buttons. The default parameter (1 or true), displays a 3-dimensional button border, creating an embossing effect; this can be overridden (0 or false) to use a different 3D effect:

Remember that toolbars are simply containers for internal components, generally buttons and separators. These components may be accessed individually and manipulated. An example of such manipulation can be found in my FindJObj utility on the File Exchange, that lists the individual figure components: whenever the user selects a toolbar button (or any other Java component for that matter), its border is temporarily modified to a flashing red rectangle helping users understand the component’s location. Here’s the relevant code snip and screenshot (readers are encouraged to look at the actual code, which is more complex – FindJObj sub-function flashComponent()):

Figure toolbar components – Matlab's toolbars can be customized using a combination of undocumented Matlab and Java hacks. This article describes how to access existing toolbar icons and how to add non-button toolbar components....

uicontrol side-effect: removing figure toolbar – Matlab's built-in uicontrol function has a side-effect of removing the figure toolbar. This was undocumented until lately. This article describes the side-effect behavior and how to fix it....

@Jason – the top (detached) toolbar is customizable just like a docked toolbar. I’m afraid I don’t know how to modify Matlab windows to have similar decoration effects (no resize/minimize buttons), nor how to create other child windows. If and when I learn more, I’ll post updates here.

@Tim – place your customization code in figureToolbarCreateFcn.m. This is an internal Matlab function (in the %matlabroot%\toolbox\matlab\graphics\ folder) that is called whenever the default figure toolbar is created. Depending on your Matlab release version, you may need to update a different internal function.

Yair: Fantastic, that worked like a charm. I’ve used it to add a ‘Protect figure’ toggle to the standard toolbar. Here’s the code. Edit the file %matlabroot%\toolbox\matlab\graphics\figureToolbarCreateFcn.m and go to the line before this one:

Yair, I’ve just run across one more question on this topic, and I cant seem to find an answer in the java forums. Do you know of a way to make the toolbar float by default, I would expect some command along the lines of setFloating, but it doesnt exist.

oops… my bad – sometimes a simple handle(obj) is enough to expose the callbacks, but sometimes not, so it is always advisable to use handle(obj,’CallbackProperties’).

Even MathWorks programmers encounter this limitation, as attested by the following internal comment within the built-in javacomponent.m function:Promote the component to a handle object first. It seems once a java object is cast to a handle, you cannot get another handle with ‘callbackproperties’.

I was curious if you might know how to create a vertically oriented figure toolbar. I am not wise in the ways of java, and thus, I am not certain about how to go about relocating the figure toolbar from the top of the figure window to, say, the left hand side of the figure window. I am interested in designing a GUI, such that the user may elect to place my customized toolbar icons and associated functions somewhere else in the figure window besides the top.

Unfortunately, when we try to use the same method for placing the toolbar on the left/right sides, the figure gets “frozen” and unresponsive. Perhaps someone can enlighten us what needs to be changed in the following code:

Yair, thanks for this, it is extremely helpful. Playing around with the jToolbar properties, I was wondering if there is a way to make the toolbar width less than the width of the window? I can adjust the height using preferred size, but adjusting the width does nothing.

Also, when adding matlab toolbars, it adds the dock button to the right of the toolbar. Is there a way to remove that. It shows up in the list of jToolbar components, but removing it does not seem to work.

I am trying to build a GUI on Matlab 2012b that has a main toolbar with only three Icons, and other optional tool bars. the point is, i need the main toolbar width to be only for the three icons, and when i select one of the optional toolbars it should come to right side of the main toolbar NOT under it.

With a MJToolBar‘s setMorePopupEnabled set to true, non-native matlab components added to the toolbar do not seem to respond when activated from the popup (I guess a jMenu derivative?) that opens when the toolbar is not large enough for all its components. Am I missing something?

@Collin – MorePopup is a Matlab extension to the standard Swing JToolBar so it is not surprising that it does not behave well with non-Matlab components. If you want me to research the issue to see whether a solution can be found, then email me for a short consulting.

Recent Comments

Yair Altman (1 day 9 hours ago): yes, this post was originally posted in 2011, more than 5 years ago – Matlab has changed a lot since then, including an entirely revised graphics system (HG2). The current...

Andrew (1 day 9 hours ago): I figured it out…actually found it elsewhere but then realized it is mentioned in this original post as well. You can still use getcursorinfo(dcmObject) to get a list of all...

Andrew (1 day 9 hours ago): Hello, Did MATLAB recently change the syntax to this? I am trying to get access to the current list of datacursors programatically, but nothing I have tried seems to work. >>...

Yair Altman (2 days 12 hours ago): @Alex – there is no immediate answer. If you want me to look at your specific code, then email me (altmany at gmail) for a dedicated consulting session.

Yair Altman (2 days 12 hours ago): Perhaps you have an outdated version of export_fig. Try to download the latest version from https://github.com/altmany/exp ort_fig

mimi sam (2 days 13 hours ago): I have “GPL Ghostscript” installed on my PC and I get this : In export_fig at 660 export_fig error. Please ensure: that you are using the latest version of export_fig...

Jaap Nienhuis (3 days 7 hours ago): I frequently make images in Matlab. Is it possible, to render the raster component of the image as a bitmap (image in illustrator) and to render the axes labels etc as vector...

Yair Altman (6 days 9 hours ago): @DavidB + @Guillaume + @TheBlackCat – if I remember correctly, my client wanted the code to continue processing only when the 2 inputs were both vectors, although possibly...

David B (6 days 16 hours ago): @TheBlackCat From the limited information we have available we are assuming the data is a vector. If that is the case then I think something like this code snippet would work nicely...

TheBlackCat (7 days 9 hours ago): It is hard to say without seeing more code. It may very well be that the data can only come in a few formats, so transposing it is the correct thing to do.

Guillaume (7 days 10 hours ago): Well, presumably, the code is operating on vectors, so the alternative could be dataA(:) + dataB(:) But really, the proper alternative would have been to find out why the data...